BOULDER — In a season crumbling at the core, Jon Embree had just made the biggest decision of his young head coaching career. He had just suspended five defensive players, including four cornerbacks, and the Buffs were about to play the best college quarterback in a generation.
Embree knew his first year at Colorado would be rough. That doesn’t make decisions any less painful, the losses any easier. Before he marched his Buffaloes into Stanford to get creamed 48-7 last Saturday, he made one of his many phone calls to mentors.
He asked Bill McCartney, his former coach at Colorado, how he got through the tough times.
“I can honestly tell you it was my third recruiting class before I felt like I gained the trust of the players,” McCartney said. “Not all of them. Some of them bought in right away. Some had crushing misfortune that I got hired.”
That was 1982. The Buffaloes went 2-8-1. In his third season, McCartney went 1-10. Five seasons later, the Buffs played for the national title. The next year, they won it.
Embree banks on this kind of advice as he navigates through a season he knew potentially could be as horrid as it is turning out. Colorado is 1-5 (0-2 Pac-12) and a heavy underdog against Washington (4-1, 2-0) on Saturday on the road — it has lost 21 consecutive games out of state — then returns to play No. 9 Oregon (4-1, 2-0).
Embree makes calls to his mentors after games such as the Washington State loss two weeks ago. The sight of Washington State receiver Marquess Wilson running for the winning score with no Buffalo within a $10 cab ride played over and over in Embree’s skull the next morning.
CU had blown one of its few chances for a win this season. His downtrodden seniors were running out of time. This time he called Gary Barnett, whom he assisted at Colorado from 1999-2002. He asked Barnett about taking over Northwestern in 1992 after 21 consecutive losing seasons. In three years, Barnett took Northwestern to the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1949.
“I told him to keep a journal,” Barnett said. “He’s going to be there for a long time. Learn from every piece of it.”
Embree, who turns 46 on Saturday, may have returned to CU from the NFL, but this is his first head coaching job, and he has not negotiating troubled waters without reaching for the occasional life preserver.
Not only ex-coaches such as McCartney and Barnett but also former players like all-pro tight end Tony Gonzalez, whom he coached in Kansas City. Embree has also taken calls from former colleagues. He recalled what he and Mike Shanahan went through last year with the Washington Redskins in trying to turn that franchise around.
“I asked them what their perspectives are,” Embree said. “I’m not an ego guy, so you can tell me, ‘Hey, this is wrong.’ That’s OK. I’ve asked them about different things, be it what I’ve said to the team to how I want to practice.”
Both McCartney and Barnett emphasized the same thing.
“Be patient,” McCartney said. “Don’t overreact. Just stay the course. He’s a bright guy. He’s going to install the right things.”
McCartney and Barnett have seen worse resurrection jobs. McCartney remembers his first road trip at CU, when the Buffs played at Washington State. McCartney used one of Bo Schembechler’s routines at Michigan and visited each player’s room the night before the game.
“I went into one room and it reeked with dope, reeked of marijuana,” McCartney said. “I had to sit down. ‘Oh, my gosh. What have I gotten myself into?’ And they were two of our best players.”
Barnett remembers his first day at Northwestern. A kid standing 5-foot-3 introduced himself. He said he was a player.
“I said, ‘Really?’ ” Barnett remembered. ” ‘What do you play?’ He said: ‘Receiver. And I’m a starter.’ “
Embree appreciates the anecdotes but his tempests are as much off the field than on it. He made his infamous “When is enough enough?” speech after the loss to Washington State, which some fans perceived as throwing his players under the bus. Then came last week’s suspensions, for which he has refused to give specifics but said were for multiple reasons and different for each player. His players appear to have his back. To a man, they’ve said they like a coach who’s passionate about winning and enforces discipline.
None of what he has done has helped the Buffs win since a victory over Colorado State, however. Barnett and McCartney preach patience, but they’re preaching to a choir that’s tone deaf.
“They both realize I’m not a patient person,” Embree said. ” ‘Take time’ is a foreign phrase for me just because we’re not guaranteed time. These seniors are guaranteed only so much time. Going through all this forces me to be patient just for sanity purposes.”
Embree knows what McCartney went through in Boulder. He arrived as a freshman tight end, when McCartney did. McCartney was a huge booster for Embree when he landed the head coaching position.
“I have the highest regard (for him),” McCartney said. He cringes when he eyes a schedule that could hand Embree a 2-10 or 3-9 record in his first season.
McCartney had one last piece of advice: “There’s no way out but through. That’s the reality.”
John Henderson: 303-954-1299, jhenderson@denverpost.com,
